Time's a Wasting

After last night’s 8-6 loss to the Orioles (now, that’s how you do a rebuild), the White Sox are 15-36 on the season. That’s one game better than the ’62 Mets at the same point in the season. You would think the record alone would be enough to get second-year manager Mickey Mouse fired, but you’d be wrong. Here’s another—how the game ended. Third-base umpire Junior Valentine called baserunner Andrew Vaughn out for interfering with shortstop Gunnar Henderson on an infield fly with runners on first and second and one out in the midst of a four-run, bottom-of-the-ninth rally by the Sox. If by some chance owner Jerry Reinsdorf was watching, he would’ve noticed two things. First, nobody knew what was going on. Second, once it became clear the game was over, Mouse went out to talk to the umpires, upset but by no means incensed. After the game, Mouse told reporters, “He [Vaughn] didn’t make contact on purpose. He wasn’t trying to impede Gunnar from catching the fly ball. He wasn’t doing that. It has nothing to do with the way the umpires called the play. I just have an issue with the rule.” Just have an issue? Sorry, a smart manager goes all Earl Weaver/Ozzie Guillen ballistic at the call. He lets Valentine know he’s “Junior” on a good day, and this isn’t one of them. He considers tossing a base or getting thrown out of tonight’s game while exchanging lineups. At no point in all this does a good manager do anything but lose his cool.